1DCA Division 1 Oral Argument - 2026/2/03 - Feb 03, 2026
argument1DCA Division 1 Oral Argument - 2026/2/03
California First District Court of Appeal
25 min
8 chapters
transcribed 7 days ago
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Transcript
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What case is being heard first and who are the parties involved?
The Court of Appeals, State of California, First Appellate District, Division I, is now in session.
Okay, good morning. Please be seated. We'll get started straight away. We're going to start with our first case of the morning and that's Fappiano versus Valera. And I believe that both of the parties are appearing remotely. And if that's correct, let's start with our entry of appearance. Let's start with the appellant. Ms. Valera, are you there?
Yes. Good morning, Judge. I am here. My name is Susan Valera.
All right. Thank you very much. And for the respondent.
Good morning, Your Honor. Edward McCutcheon of Sunderland McCutcheon for the respondents. Okay, thank you,
Mr. McCutcheon. All right, Ms. Valera, we're going to start with you. And you have the first word and also the last word.
And
you saw our tentative opinion. And why don't you tell us what you think we missed in that opinion.
Thank you, Your Honor, and good morning.
Good morning.
I will be going through the opinion first. the way I see it. So let me get started. Sorry, my papers are covered.
Well, rather than going through the entire opinion, maybe you want to just summarize what your points are in terms of what you think we did incorrectly.
Well, We never sought, Your Honor, to have the ranch divided equally. We sought to remove or extract parcels that we had built a house on and developed a spring for our retirement home.
How does Susan Valera summarize the parcel‑division issue and the ranch’s ownership structure?
Those parcels NUMBER OF THERE ARE SIX PARCELS AND THEY ARE COVERED BY THREE CERTIFICATES OF COMPLIANCE FOR A TOTAL OF 560 ACRES WHICH LEAVES 4700 ACRES AS A COMPLETE PIECE. NOW, OUT OF THOSE, THE TOTAL RANCH IS 5200 ACRES. And now the breakdown, I have it as followed. My brother has 33%, which covers 1,730 acres. My share is with my husband and my one son, James, is 29.63%, and that covers 1,500 acres. And then the rest of the beneficiaries or tenants each have 11.11%, which totals 1,700 acres. If the ranch were to be divided as such, and we took the 560 acres, they would be left with 4,780 acres. Which would not diminish or harm their property, their ownership. They only own 700 acres. But technically, if we do, if I only take the 560 acres, that leaves a thousand shares of mine that are still up in the air.
So I do not see how if we take those certain parcels and separate it from the entire piece of property, how it diminishes their ownership.
Well, what the trial court found was that your place, the place that you built sits on basically the best part of the property.
No, it does not, Your Honor. It's on a side hill. and we had to level the pad with a bulldozer. There are countless areas. The ranch is huge. It sits up on a ridge, you might say. Which is consistent, really eight square miles. There's 20 miles of road. And as you sit up on top of the ridge, there are places where you can see the Pacific Ocean on one side, and you turn around and you look, and you can see everything to the east, almost to the Sierras. My house is not on any of those sections of the property.
All right. Well, Ms. Valera, see, part of the problem here is that In the trial court, you had the opportunity to get admitted evidence supporting your claims. And while you submitted evidence, none of it was accepted into evidence. And so that evidence is not before us. on review, so what we have is a record that does not have any evidence that you proposed and it does include all the evidence that the respondents proposed. So we can't wave a magic wand and go beyond what our authority is and that is to stick to the record and stick to the evidence that we have before us. So that's just a concern and maybe you want to address that or maybe you already have.
Why does the court say the evidence submitted by the appellant was not considered?
Well, I would like to address the fact that they say that they were not aware that we were putting up a piece of property, a house on that property.
Well, I don't remember them saying that. In my review of the record, they actually sent you letters complaining about the fact that you were putting up improvements on the property.
Yes, that was after the fact that the house was up. After my father passed away, Your Honor, there was one meeting of all the tenants.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What case is being heard first and who are the parties involved?
0:10–2:22
2
How does Susan Valera summarize the parcel‑division issue and the ranch’s ownership structure?
2:22–6:32
3
Why does the court say the evidence submitted by the appellant was not considered?
6:32–10:07
4
What arguments does the appellant make about the trial‑court’s alleged abuse of discretion?
10:07–13:14
5
How do the parties describe the trial‑date scheduling disputes and settlement offers?
13:14–16:30
6
What points does Mr. McCutcheon raise in response to the appellant’s claims?
16:30–18:58
7
Why does the court move on to People v. Davies and what are the key issues in that case?
18:58–22:26
8
What are the final arguments and the court’s decision on each case?
22:26–25:29
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